A White Album

Inspired by The Crafty Cripple, who has been taking part in the weekly photo challenge on Shutterboo and keeps posting some very alluring photographs, I thought I would jump in myself and have a go (the flickr group is here). Well, this week’s challenge was ‘white’ which was interesting because I have been having a tie-dyeing session, so not much white there! I was hoping the big fat white cat from 2 doors down might come and sit and look at me and then I could take his photograph (since we had the new fence done, he comes every day and sits looking at it, with a furious expression. I know you are thinking, how can you tell, but I can. I can only assume it smells wrong or something, or it is on his patch and we ought to have asked his permission). Anyway, no big fat white cat, he must be busy staring furiously as something else this week, but it did strike me that All The Things before you actually tie-dye them have this strange white vulnerability: pure, glowing white but you know it won’t last, because as soon as you open the procion dye pot, boom, there it is, all over. So I experimented with a photo of my tie-dyeing equipment beforehand.

Actually, look. Don't use thin white bin bags for tie-dyeing. COVER EVERYTHING WITH THE THICKEST ONES YOU CAN FIND!

But it wasn’t quite right. Then I got distracted by some white bubbles on a dish I’d just washed up.

Finest Ecover bubbles because I save the environment while I am washing up. Smug, moi?

But the one I liked most was the one of the soda ash being dissolved preparatory to soaking all the cloth.

Fixative! Very important! Do you want your tie-dyeing to run in the wash and turn your pants all murky?

It was a fun challenge because there are a surprising amount of different shades and variations in white, and keeping the colour simple means you can focus on the texture. Next week is 'large' - this holds no fear for a woman with a small plastic gorilla, ha!

You know what I really like is colour, though ;-). So this is what I ended up with after I had done my tie-dyeing (well, there was more than this. I just didn’t want to haul it all up onto the fence. The neighbours think I’m odd enough as it is).

Sunshine! Get the camera out! Rush out and hang that tie-dye on the fence!

I was intending it as the centre panel for a quilted wallhanging but I’m not sure. I like it but it turns out that the idea I had in my head was smaller and more colour-intensive (who knew? Not me until I’d actually done the dyeing!) so I’m going to dye another batch next week.

I am on my fourth block and I am losing the will to live

And this is a bit of a taster of a new quilt top I’m piecing. 900 2” squares. Did you all wince in unison? Good ;-).